uBreakiFix - Phone and Computer Repair — Attraction in Fremont

This review is especially for the person who stayed 10 minutes late to accommodate me on Wednesday, December 11th after I spent 90 minutes in the most forsaken crossbay traffic and still wouldn't have made it on time. After what servicing this phone has put me through in the last two months, your actions have quantifiably regulated my mood, rebalanced my neurotransmitters and staved off what was snowballing into a nervous breakdown. I know you were under no obligation to do that.

Oh, and the technicians here actually fixed my goddamn phone.

This was my FOURTH attempt at fixing my phone's broken primary camera. The circus of incompetence I was dealing with up to this point would have made for a humorous series of vignettes at Cannes, but experiencing it in real life had me seriously considering calling Amnesty International. If anyone is familiar with Asterix & Obelix, Samsung's Premium Care+ network became my own manifestation of The Place That Sends You Mad.

First attempt was the Union City location. They called me a day ahead of time to inform me they had the parts. I drove an hour to get there, only to be told they didn't have the parts, and neither did their distributor or the other Bay Area locations. I was told I had to mail it into Servify. Great.

Second attempt. I mail my phone into Servify and due to them processing it with UPS Ground, my phone takes forever to get there. Seriously, what the hell guys? My earbuds get Next Day but you snail mail my $1300 phone? They had it nearly two weeks. In that time I had a burner phone delayed day-of delivery and broke my husband's phone screen after being attacked by a dog and falling to the ground I've never broke my own phone screen. Then Servify mailed back my phone with a bogus service record and fabricated diagnostics sheet. They never fixed the camera despite signing off on it.

Third attempt. I decide to try San Rafael's location. I make the appt and call the morning day-of to ask for verification if they have the parts I need. I called 5 hours prior to my appt. They completely ghosted me despite consenting to email/SMS/anything. Wonderful. Holidays approaching and I can't find anyone in a metro area of 10 million people to legitimately fix this phone. What a joke.

As a last ditch effort, I figure I'll arrange for an appt with Fremont even though it's a logistical nightmare for me not having a car. Even though San Rafael ghosted me, they still showed up on my claim, so naturally I got confused and thought maybe the brain rot has set in so deeply now that I didn't click the right location. I call San Rafael and the rep there tells me my appt is setup for Fremont, as I'm staring at my service ticket that says 1pm appt for San Rafael. See what I mean about The Place That Sends You Mad? GFDI. I call Fremont and the dude is like "wait, what is your issue exactly?" and after explaining the camera lens for the nth time in 8 weeks, he says the San Rafael person never mentioned a camera and only said my screen needed fixed. After I mentioned "Camera lens" no fewer than a dozen times in my convo to the San Rafael dude.

I arrange to go to Fremont. The lady there says she can't promise the parts they have will completely fix my phone because the tech still had to look. Great, fine, just don't say it's fixed and have me open a broken camera in front of you. At this point, no jury would convict me. I'd have more of the American people on my side than Luigi Mangione. Achievement unlocked: folk hero status attained.

Thankfully, after two months and four separate claims numbers, my camera lens was fixed.

So many lessons learned in the last several weeks: Samsung insurance process is dogwater. Bay Area rush hour traffic is dogshit. Having to use burner phones blows dogs for quarters. Never underestimate the power of self-medication. It was a murder, but...

My experience with uBreakiFix is for the four Bay Area stores - Union City (#735), Fremont (#362), Santa Clara (#109), and San Jose (#144). The review focused on uBreakiFix's business strategy and what the customers should consider and look for in their services. My Samsung Galaxy Flip 6 has screen issues. Two months after I bought it brand new, the USB-C port did not charge; then the touch screen died, so the phone is not accessible (basically dead). Samsung's website indicated that uBreakiFix is Samsung's Authorized Service Center, so I took the phone to the uBreakiFix Union City store, where I previously had screen issues with the Flip 4. Still, I paid to replace the screen assembly as an out-of-warranty repair. Union City checked my phone, telling me that they don't do the warranty repair for the Flip 6 (but they accepted $500+ from me to repair my Flip 4) and told me to check the uBreakiFix Fremont store because the Fremont store is the only place can do the Samsung warranty service. Moving to the Fremont store, after they checked my Flip 6, they came back saying there was a dent on my screen, so their hand was tight for the Samsung warranty because Samsung would reject the claim. Since the phone is still new and I did not drop my phone, so, I asked the staff where is the dent... they showed me there might be a dent of less than 0.5 mm on the screen protector if you can find it with a microscope. I was pissed at this point. How the heck is that a dent if I can't see it? How do I know if the uBreakiFix staff who checked my Z6 did not purposely put something on the screen in the back room so they could claim a false statement and avoid helping customers to exercise Samsung warranty? The Fremont store manager told me Samsung wouldn't accept the warranty claim because of the "invisible dent", "BUT they can fix it if I change my mind to pay for the repair instead. What a SCAM!!! A couple days later I also check the San Jose store and Santa Clara stores, you guessed it, the "Samsung's Authorized Service Center" was just a fake name. The San Jose store told me to go to the Santa Clara store because it's the only uBreakiFix store in the Bay Area that can replace the screen. The Santa Clara store did not reject my claim and did not wrongfully accuse the "dent" on the screen. However, the Santa Clara store only wanted to order the USB-C port, not the screen assembly, and they said the wait for parts could be weeks. After visiting 4 uBreakiFix stores, I concluded that their business model is to make money only, and they falsely signed a contract with Samsung as the "Samsung's Authorized Service Center" and will never help you for "warranty" related issues. I ended up sending my Z6 to Samsung directly for warranty service, with free shipping and got my phone back within 5 days. My phone got a new screen, working like new again, and I just had to stay phone-free for 5 days. Five days without a phone in this ago is difficult! Conclusion - uBreakiFix is built to make $$ from you, don't bother to use them to exercise the Samsung Warranty, you will be very...

I do not recommend this place and here is why:

This is the closest location to me (40 miles!) where I can get a replacement battery for my Pixel phone, so I scheduled an appointment for their Sunday opening hour (noon) and received a confirmation email with the estimate of $79 plus tax. There were 3 walk-in customers in front of me. Appointment did not matter, I had to wait in line behind the walk-ins. At 12:30, I finally was at the counter. I was told that it takes 3-4 hours and it would cost $99 plus tax - that's 25% more. I was disappointed because someone who had the same operation done at the Santa Clara location told me it took under 2 hours. Where do you go in the empty mall for 3-4 hours? I asked if it could be expedited since my home was an hour drive away. The woman at the counter explained that it takes 4 hours. They charge $50 for 1 hour of labor, but it takes 4 hours? I was back by 4:30 and was told that my device was not ready. It took them until 5:15 before my phone was ready. There were several people ahead of me picking up their same day orders. Guess what, none of those people was in front of me at noon. They clearly got there after me but were taken care of before me. I suspect that my phone was not even touched until 4:30 when I got to the counter. The woman at the counter (Sheree) was slow and unhelpful. There are simple things they could do instead of blaming their sloppy service on COVID-19: Confirmation email should warn that service is slow, so the customer would figure out how to find a public restroom in the mall where everything is closed and maybe bring their own food for the 5 hours of waiting. Instead of giving the customer an unpleasant surprise of 25% price increase, just tell them to inquire at the store about a cost. Do not lie to the customer that a 1 hour labor to replace the battery takes 3-4 hours when in fact it takes almost 5 hours. Just stop the fiction of appointment-based service - it only sets false expectations that you would get any advantage by scheduling...